Seabird Meets the Sea
by HecateA
Summary: When Ginny crashes into the sea, she could have taken her very last breath had a curious mermaid not been passing by. Mermaid!AU. Oneshot.


**Author's Note: **Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Warnings: **NA

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**Stacked with: **MC4A; Shipping Wars; Hogwarts; Harmony of Souls Eternal

**Individual Challenge(s): **Gryffindor MC; Ravenclaw MC; Red Moon Quindrabble; 3rd Rule Bribery (HP Edition) (Y); Creature People; Seeds; Reliable Transportation; No Need For Calendars; Old Shoes; Theme & Things A (Change); Themes & Things B (Survival); The 3rd Rule; Rian-Russo Inversion; In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Representation(s): **Mermaid!AU

**Bonus challenge(s): **Demo (White Dress; Ladylike; Queen Bee; Middle Name; Clio's Conclusion; Triton's Domain)

**Tertiary bonus challenge: **Sanctuary

**Word Count: **1294

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_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley (Dreamy Redhead)

**List (Prompt): **Spring Medium 2 (Creature AU)

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_**Hogwarts Submitting Info**_

**House: **Ravenclaw

**Assignment: **Assignment #1, Photography, Task #6: Your story must take place entirely underwater.

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**Seabird Meets the Sea **

She propelled herself through the water with as much strength and thrust as she had, but she knew even before reaching the sailor sinking through the waves that she was too late. The sailor had been underwater for too long; her clothes were too waterlogged, sea water must have flooded into her lungs, and her face had that peace to it that they all got when they came back to the sea for good. She had drowned.

Still, Luna kept this sailor in her arms and examined her. It wasn't every day that a human made it this far—especially not a lone human. Where was the rest of her crew? Why weren't pieces of her ship also making their way down to the sea floor? Luna had a lot of questions; she usually did.

The sailor wore crimson robes that were just a few shades lighter than her long hair—colours that must have been even more beautiful at the surface where she'd come from. She wore breeches underneath, and heavy leather boots that must have only weighed her down, though they surely had some sort of practical purpose on land. There were freckles splashed across her face and down her arms in which Luna was sure she could trace constellations, if she would look long enough.

She patted down the sailor, looking for pockets in her clothes. She didn't find anything relevant. This sailor truly was on her own—and she was rather far out at sea, too. Daddy and the other merfolk always accused Luna of going too close to the shoreline, of breaching the surface far too often. And she did do those things, but today… well, today she had met a truly adventurous sailor. Someone who had fallen into the sea, but maybe didn't deserve to die quite so quickly.

Luna knew what she had to do.

She knew that every mermaid could only do this once in their lives, but why save it when the occasion was so perfect? Daddy had always said that when he'd seen her mother sinking through the waves, he'd known that he had to claim her in the sea's name and he said that he'd never looked back. That's what everybody who had made a mermaid said; when it was time, you just knew.

And so Luna closed her eyes and pressed her lips against the drowned sailor, breathing in the sea's life into her lungs.

She pulled away when she felt the sailor gasp against her lips, breathing underwater for the very first time. Frantically, the sailor flailed wildly and beat Luna away. Luna pulled back to give her room, but immediately the sailor started to lurch sideways—still not sure how to balance herself in the water, yet. Luna grabbed her arm to keep her from sinking too far.

"Merlin, where—what—_my God,_" she spluttered. Her wide, panicked eyes were driftwood brown.

"Try to breathe deeply," Luna said. "Your airways are different now; you don't want to make a mistake and choke."

"The legends are true," the sailor gasped, looking at Luna. "You're a mermaid…"

"I suggest you have a look down at… well, where your legs _used _to be," Luna said kindly.

The sailor looked down and screeched, flailing again. This time, when Luna let go and she inevitably started sinking, the sailor grabbed onto her again for support.

"What… what happened?" she asked.

"You sank," Luna said. "I'm sorry. I would have helped sooner if I could have, but I was just passing through on my way to the reef when I saw you…"

"Sank?" the sailor asked. "More like crash landed, without the landing part!"

"Crashing?" Luna said.

"I test fly broomsticks," the sailor grumbled to herself. "Mum always said it was too dangerous—she's going to kill me for this… for…. Merlin's beard…"

She was staring at her tail again. It was a beautiful, golden orange colour. Her tail was long and flexible, agile, and the fins at the end were as delicate as a koi fish.

"If it helps, your tail is quite beautiful for a Made Mermaid," Luna asked.

The sailor looked up at her, frowning.

"You made me?"

"You'd drowned," Luna said simply. "I didn't want you to die."

"I…" the sailor cleared her throat. "Thank you, I suppose. For that."

She ran a hand over her eyes.

"It'll take some time for you to adapt to being underwater," Luna said. "My daddy's very interested in human anatomy—he says that we have different pupils and eyelids to keep the saltwater out. I suppose yours are coming in, now."

"Your father studies humans?" the sailor asked.

"I do too," Luna said. She reached into the bag hanging across her chest and strapped to her hip by a belt. "I like to look at the things that they—well, that you—make. My favourite is this."

"That's a Galleon," the sailor said, looking at the golden piece in Luna's hand. "It's… currency."

"I like the way it shines in the sunlight and all the little markings along the edge of it," Luna said, turning it around in her fingers again. "It's especially pretty when you breach and get direct sunlight on it, but it's probably too soon for you to do that. Luckily, it's still nice down here."

"How is it that you and your father study humans when humans—even wizards—don't have any real evidence that you're real?" the sailor asked again.

"Well, you do spend quite a bit of time in the ocean," Luna mused. "Sometimes you even… well, end up so far down that you're in our realms. Although that's not quite your case, I suppose—unless a broomstick is a type of boat I've never heard of before."

"It's not, it's a… think of it as a ship to fly," the sailor said.

Luna's eyes went wide. "Like a seabird?"

"Sure," she answered. "Like that."

"Wonderful," Luna gasped. She looked around. "I can try to salvage the pieces of your broomstick if you like."

"Don't… don't worry," she answered. She reached into her robes and retrieved a small round object with an arrow from her inside pocket. "I pulled off the compass from the handle. Otherwise, it's just a pile of twigs now."

"They'll make a nesting seabird very happy," Luna offered.

"There's a relief," the sailor mumbled.

"Can I call you Seabird, since I suppose you're not really a sailor?" Luna asked.

"You can call me Ginny, because that's my name," the girl offered.

"That's pretty," she said. "I'm Luna, because I breach the surface so much that they say the moon dyed my hair white."

"That's… lovely," Ginny said. "Are there many mermaids?"

"Of course," Lily said. "I can bring you to the closest settlement. I heard from other made mermaids that it can be quite an exhaustive transformation—we should get you somewhere that you can rest…"

"I'd appreciate that," Ginny said. She gave her tail a tentative kick. "Oh, Merlin, that feels strange…"

"You'll get used to it," Luna said. "But I don't mind helping you for now."

"Have you always been a mermaid or were you also… umm, made?" Ginny asked, experimenting with another kick.

"I was born one," Luna said. "I was born in the Atlantic, and I've never really left though I hope to travel one day, to see all seven seas."

"That sounds nice," Ginny said. "That sounds… well, it's good that there's things to look forward to down here. How do you make a mermaid, anyways? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it. I probably should have led with that… Thank you. But how did you make me?"

Something made Luna hesitate for a second.

"I can tell you later," Luna said. "For now, we should really get you home before it gets dark."


End file.
